Cushion Spurge – A favorite long-blooming spring perennial

Cushion Spurge or Euphorbia polychroma is one of my favorite spring perennials. It blooms so long that we enjoy its bright chrome yellow flowers for weeks. To get technical, the flowers are actually bracts or modified leaves, which is why they last so long.

The plant’s common name comes from its cushion-like, dome-shaped growth habit.

Euphorbia polychroma stars in spring garden

This is a great spring perennial, which is quite drought-tolerant and cold hardy for USDA Zones 4 to 8.

If happy, it will self-seed, so it can become a good groundcover plant.

We often dig up seedlings and either move them elsewhere in the garden, or pot them up and grow them on for the following year.

Some people consider this plant a garden thug because of its self-seeding tendency, but I find it’s easy to control, either by weeding out unwanted seedlings or clipping the plant back by a third after it has flowered.

A note about the name

“The proper botanical name of this species is constantly in doubt. E. polychroma, named by an Austrain, Anton Josef Kerner in 1875, was superseded by E. epithymoides, given by Linnaeus, in 1770. Normally the first name takes precedence, and thus E. epithymoides should be the correct name. However, that name had been given to another species. Because of this confusion, cushion spurge will be listed by both names for many years to come; choose the one you like and stay with it.” (Herbaceous Perennial Plants, 1989)

Of course, most gardeners ignore botanical names, and go with cushion spurge.